Lost In Reality: Glitch In The System
by Kinetikai
Summary: Sigma is finally caught. However, it only AFTER he's caught that the real chaos begins. How can X fight back? By going into a cybernetic world where Sigma reigns supreme. Rated T for action, violence, and some language.
1. The Last Hurrah

Lost In Reality - Glitch In The System

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Hello, readers. This is a brand spankin' new fanfic about Megaman (X) and Sigma (sorry to disappoint Sonic fans). What? An X and Sigma fanfic is not original, you say? Well, I don't want to spoil anything, so just go ahead and read. You may be pleasantly surprised. I tried to be original with this so I hope you can appreciate it. Enjoy! (Disclaimer: I'll only say this once. I do not own any Megaman characters,Capcom, or anything else related. So stop calling me.)

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File 1: The Last Hurrah 

**File Date: May 21-26, 22XX**

Absolute zero. The point of temperature where it is so cold that all molecules stop moving. This was the best way to describe the air of silent tension that surrounded the two warriors. X stood still, his buster charged and aimed at the evil that stood before him. The only motion came from the gusts of wind that passed over the rooftop. X and Sigma were standing on the precipice of the tallest skyscraper in Giga City, the cold ground hundreds upon hundreds of feet below them. X was the first to break the deafening silence. "You've got nowhere to go, Sigma!" The stillness and silence between words was almost unbearable. "Give yourself up!" As if on cue, several police helicopters came up and began flying over their heads. Sigma just looked and smiled.

"You think... that you can win just like that?" Sigma put his hand to his forehead and chuckled. "We've known each other for so long, and yet your naivety still amazes me."

"Quiet! I'm holding the cards now! I have the power! You are not in a position to insult me!" Sigma's smile quickly became a menacing scowl.

"FOOL! Don't mention power unless you are willing to give your life to defend your words!"

"Just stop this right now! This can't go on forever! You cannot win!" Sigma's grimace became a smile again, but the anger still remained.

"Well, I guess you are right in one respect. This can't go on forever." Sigma laughed and clenched his fists. "Let's end this with a bang!" Sigma punched the ground with a tremendous and frightening fury. The concrete where X was standing suddenly cracked, shook, and became askew, separating itself from the surrounding . Suddenly, great bursts of fire rose out of the faults in the cement that circled X. X gasped and lost his concentration for a split-second, but soon broke out of it and jumped up over the fire with lightning reflexes, shooting off one round into Sigma's chest.

"Give it up, Sigma!" X fired round after round into Sigma's unguarded abdomen, causing him to step backwards slowly towards the skyscraper's edge. After a few shots, Sigma regained his self-control and vaulted up into the air.

Sigma looked down at the ground below him. "SMASH!" He was now right above X. X dashed out of the way of Sigma's rapidly descending feet, which crushed the ground where X was standing just an instant ago. Sigma looked at X and smiled again, his eyes beginning to flash. "And the heat goes on!" Two bright orange lasers suddenly shot out of Sigma's eyes. X was still reeling from the last attack (which threw him off-balance) and was unfortunately not quick enough to fully dodge the upcoming beams.

"AAAHHH!" X screamed as the lasers pierced into his left arm, almost severing it. The arm immediately dropped to X's side, immobile from the shoulder down. X raised his buster immediately, almost as if it was an involuntary reaction. He began shooting powerful shots, but without his left arm to stabilize his buster, the shots became hideously inaccurate. After a second or so, though, through what seemed like pure luck, a single round managed to hit Sigma square in the stomach.

Sigma was knocked back slightly, but then lunged over and fell on his knee. "You little punk!" Sigma turned his head and noticed several steel beams rising up out of the concrete. Sigma smiled and resumed standing erect, again facing X, his focus unscathed. X stood cautiously and semi-curiously, wondering what Sigma was going to pull out of his sleeve this time.

Sigma stuck his hand out in front of his body, his palm facing X. All of a sudden a large, translucent beam of crimson energy shot out of the center of his hand, traveling in a beeline towards X's head. X ducked almost entirely out of the way of the scarlet ray, but was hit slightly on the right side of his forehead. He would have been razed by the energy beam if it carried any force, but oddly enough, X was not damaged. Amazed that he had not taken any injury from the blast, X stood with an air of curiosity, eventually turning around to see the true target of the shot.

X's eyes followed the ray of energy to a vertical steel beam, at which point the energy twisted and bended like a rope, tying itself to the metal. As Sigma began pumping more energy into the powerful crimson ray (which looked to X like a shaft of liquid light), the steel beam (which, by the way, was heavily cemented and welded to the skyscraper) began to shake and come loose of its surroundings. With more force from Sigma the beam was free, and it began rising rapidly. X gasped.

The steel beam then started flying at high velocity towards the mildly dumbfounded X, who used a quick dive roll to avoid being decimated by several hundred pounds of metal. X rose from the roll and soon had to jump again to avoid another beam sent hurtling in his direction. A second later, more beams were on a collision course with X's more-fragile-by-comparison body. Between diving to avoid metal annihilation, X fired off more shots, but was unable to maintain any accuracy whatsoever. After a bit more dodging (and a lot more crashing), X formulated a new strategy, and began spraying shots left to right. With the combination of being unable to stabilize his shots and constantly having to evade flying pillars of death, the task of shooting Sigma became fantastically difficult, but not impossible.

Sigma's anger increased with each of X's stylized evasions. His fury built up until in a flash of rage he thrust his palms out to the sides of his body and channeled all his energy to force six beams out of the ground. "RAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!" A bellow of ferocious proportions echoed out of Sigma's lips as six columns of death were thrown haphazardly. As bizarre as it would seem at the time, this last effort from Sigma was a godsend.

The police copters which circled above the two were nothing if not a waste of airspace. While they did manage to fire off a few rounds of exceedingly ineffective bullets in Sigma's general direction, the Giga City police helicopters seemed to have no purpose except to circle the skyscraper and consume fuel. However, despite their apparent uselessness, the police did manage to help X in one way. Unfortunately, it was in the same way that a pawn helps in chess by sacrificing itself so the queen can move to kill the king.

The sixth steel beam did not make contact with X at all, nor did it even come close. Instead it soared over X's head, pummeling into the side of a circling copter. This caused two things: First, it triggered a large, fiery explosion which made X gasp in surprise. However, after the initial shock of the blast, X soon realized what else the explosion had caused; a distraction. For the first time since the beginning of the battle, Sigma had lost his focus on X. "Checkmate."

Seizing the opportunity given to him, X dashed towards his enemy with an intense energy, until he was mere feet away from Sigma. Sigma was stunned when he got around to noticing the proximity of his foe, and even more stunned when a barrage of close-range fire came barreling at him. Within the next five seconds, despite a miss or two, X had successfully released between 20 and 30 shots into Sigma's unprotected body. With each shot Sigma moved backwards a little, (a feat X knew would be impossible if Sigma was alert and on guard,) and soon Sigma was mere inches away from the roof's edge.

It was then that Sigma fully realized what was occurring, and the precarious position he was in. Within a split-second Sigma had regained the enraged concentration which he'd lost when X began firing. Sigma, in a move of both power and desperation, tightened his fists and formed a giant barrier of orange energy around him. X's shots, which were knocking Sigma back just a second ago, were now being deflected in every direction. Sigma's evil smile returned.

With another push of energy, Sigma's shield pulsated and expanded, knocking X backward onto the ground. Sigma's smile turned to a laugh. "HAHAHAHA! Get up, X! This is starting to get interesting!" X looked at Sigma with intension, desperately trying to figure a way to harm Sigma. As it would turn out, the answer lied beneath Sigma's feet. X frantically began charging up his buster. Sigma laughed again. "Hahaha! What are going to do, X? Shoot me? HAHAHA!"

"No... no I'm not." X pointed his buster down towards the concrete Sigma stood on. X launched the fully charged energy shot, and with a great explosion the ground Sigma stood on was reduced to nothing but dust and chunks of cement no larger than a tennis ball. And with that, Sigma went down.

X smiled slightly, and gave a sigh of relief. He casually got back up and walked to the side of the building where Sigma fell off. However, when he looked down, he saw nothing. No falling Sigma, no crater in the ground. It was like he'd vanished into thin air. X's bafflement now took over any other feelings. Then suddenly, X noticed something. A few feet under the ledge where Sigma fell, there was a series of windows, one of which was broken. X took a step back and realized where Sigma was.

"Hahaha..." Sigma's evil laughter seemed to echo throughout the rooftop, and X responded only by becoming more vigilant. The laughing continued for a few seconds, but then diminished. Just then, X heard a loud thumping noise that seemed to originate from a far corner of the rooftop. A second later X heard another thump coming from the opposite corner behind him. 2 thumps followed, both coming from radically different locations. X turned slightly, listening intently, trying to locate the source. Ironically, it was the source that found him first.

"HEEEEEEERE'S SIGGY!" With a great explosion, Sigma burst through the ground X was standing on, devastating X and knocking him backwards. Chunks of concrete were scattered everywhere, and the center of the roof was now a hole seven feet in diameter. Sigma fell back to the cement, where his feet impacted what was left of the ground about two inches. X was now pretty damaged, and Sigma seemed unscathed. X realized that if Sigma was to be destroyed, it had to be soon.

Sigma began to pick up chunks of concrete with the same crimson beam (X refers to this as 'energetic telekinesis') and began hurling them at X. X was weak, but not powerless, and still had enough strength to dodge the large masses of fast-moving cement. X didn't fire a single shot as he avoided Sigma's throws, but instead he charged up his buster to its maximum potential, waiting for the opportune moment. Sigma just continued to throw and laugh.

"HAHAHA! What's the matter, X? Given up the will to fight? I don't blame you! Hahaha!" X breathed heavily, his anger slowly increasing.

"I... never... give up... the will... to fight!" As X muttered that last word he dashed towards Sigma at full glorious speed, planting his buster right into Sigma's chest and firing with every ounce of power X had in him. This was enough energy to knock Sigma way over the edge of the skyscraper, and that's what would have happened, but by some miraculous event Sigma had managed to grab X's arms as he was flung back towards the edge. When Sigma and X stopped moving, the predicament they were in was a tricky one indeed.

Sigma had clutched X's arms and was holding them away from his body as he leaned precariously over the street hundreds of feet below him. X struggled to keep from falling off the edge, leaning back towards the safety of the roof behind him. Sigma's face showed both concern and amusement; concern for his own safety, and amusement for the quandary X was in. "A fitting end to a fitting battle, eh, X? My only regret is that I won't be able to see you die."

"Same here. ERGH..." X grunted as Sigma began twisting his buster clockwise.

"Heh... it's almost a shame... to see such a worthy adversary perish." Sigma twisted harder. X spoke through insurmountable pain.

"Then... I guess that's good news for you..." X summoned up any amount of energy that still remained in his body. With a painful groan, and through what seemed like some unknown mystical force of nature, X began to move his buster. "...because... I'm not going to perish..." X's buster slowly worked its way left until it was directly over Sigma's chest. "...you are." X fired off a single shot.

In a moment that seemed like it was in slow motion, Sigma was blasted off the edge of the building, at the same time ripping off X's left arm, and was sent plummeting down to the planet's harsh, solid surface. X fell back to the ground, oil gushing from where his arm was severed. As the copters lowered down to the rooftop to save him, and as X's vision faded, X heard three things: he heard the whooshing of the spinning helicopter blades, the maniacal laughter of Sigma as he fell, and the satisfying crash of a body hitting the ground at terminal velocity. After that, X's world went black.

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"_How's he doing?"_

"_He seems to be recovering quite well."_

"_Yeah, I've never know X to take a hit he can't get back up from."_

"_Well, that battle took a lot out of him. I just thank heaven that the fight didn't last longer."_

"_When will he be fully recovered?"_

"_I'd say a week, maybe more, maybe less. I still have a lot of repairs to do. Plus I need to manufacture a new arm. I guess, to quote an old saying, 'only time will tell'."_

X opened his eyes to see Zero to the left of him, and Douglas, who was trying to rebuild him, on his right. Douglas had been working around the world, but jumped on the chance to help X after he heard about the... incident. X was lying on a bed inside one of the rooms of the mechanics bay (sort of a sick bay for robots) of the Central Tower, which served as a base for the Maverick Hunters. Tubes and wires were hooked up to X's body, and next to his head was some sort of life monitor X couldn't comprehend. Douglas opened up a panel in X's buster and began fiddling with some wires. "How do you feel?" X smiled weakly.

"Like I've been through a war." Zero smiled slightly to match X.

"You battled Sigma. They're one in the same." X winced as Douglas connected two wires that created a bit of a spark.

"Is he dead?" Zero walked around to the other side of the bed.

"You mean Sigma? He doesn't die. He's like the bad guy in a slasher movie." Zero stopped moving. "We can only hope to control and contain him." X stared up at the ceiling.

"I guess..." X just stared at nothing until another crossed wire caused him to wince again. "So, what happened after I blacked out?"

"The GCPD cleaned up the mess. It took a little while to extract Sigma from the 10-foot deep crater, but he didn't really put up much of a struggle. I pity the poor soul who was around him when he woke up."

"What are they going to do to him?"

"I don't know. His trial is in three days. Until then he'll be kept in a holding cell 200 feet under the planet's surface."

"I hope... for the sake of the world, I mean... that they know what he's capable of..."

"Yeah..." Zero put his hands behind his head and paced some more. "Hey, X, can I ask you a question?"

"No." X closed his eyes and slipped back into darkness.

"_He's a fighter. A foolhardy fighter."_

"_Hey, he did what we couldn't up on that rooftop."_

"_I suppose you're right. I hope, for X's sake at least, that Sigma gets what's coming to him."_

"_Even if he does, it doesn't end here."_

"_I know. It never does." _

"_Is that a bad thing?"_

"_That depends."_

"_On what?"_

"_On whether or not you want the world to stop spinning."_

"_Why do I talk to you?"_

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The trial took place in a dark, grey, lifeless room, devoid of windows, hundreds of feet in height. The Council, which consisted of five people, sat on a large dais that was raised high up off the floor. No member spoke, and no sound was made, until the convicted was escorted through the large metal doors at the room's base. All that could be heard were the echoing sounds of two feet stepping on the cold steel floor. When the footsteps stopped, the only sound heard was a mechanical whirring as a small pillar rose up from the center of the floor.

Standing atop the rising pillar was Sigma, who seemed suspiciously docile, considering the situation. Sigma's face showed no hint of emotion, no hint of hostility. In one sense he might have even appeared to be tranquil, serene. His hands were sealed behind his back, using special 'handcuffs', per se, that were hooked up to his central processing unit; any attempt to force them off resulted in all of Sigma's inner systems being simultaneous shut off. It was perhaps only for this reason the Sigma seemed calm for the time being.

When the pillar reached its highest point, the trial began. The head of the Council, who sat in the center of the dais, stood up, and walked forward to where there was a small podium that overlooked the ground below. The Council head's look was stern and unforgiving, and many people had a hard time believing that he would ever acquit anyone. And yet his reputation always seemed to precede him. His jurisdiction was never overruled and his choices were never looked upon with derision. However, it would not take a Council's word to convince someone that Sigma was a soulless force of pure malevolence and evil.

"Sigma!" The Council head's deep and methodical voice boomed and echoed through the vast space of the room. "You are on trial here for insurmountable counts of violence, murder, destruction, and tyranny. The punishment for all counts, not including minor crimes and offenses, is a combined total of 11,537 life sentences, which would be served out consecutively in the cyber prison Taraknis." During the entire trial Sigma's head was tilted down. He never once looked upon the faces of his prosecutors. He simply looked down and mumbled to himself incoherently, remaining perfectly motionless.

"However, the Council and I have decided that in this case the sentence be extended to eternity in cybernetic exile. We believe that no amount of time, no number of years in a normal prison could ever alter you enough for you to become a sane, compliant member of society." As the Council head spoke, Sigma's mumbling became increasingly louder. At one point the Council head became so irritated that he slammed his large fist onto the steel podium. "SIGMA!" Sigma became quiet, but still did not lift his head. The Council head straightened up, coughed, and resumed with the sentencing.

"So, in conclusion, it is the final decision of this Council that, for your crimes against humans and mechanoloids alike, you will spend the rest of eternity in the outskirts of the Mother System, in perpetual cybernetic exile, until you cease to function. The judgment is final. Your sentence begins tomorrow. Do you have anything to say for yourself before this trial ends?" Sigma was silent. Although the trial was over quite fast in retrospect, it felt like an eternity in itself. The Council head soon became angered with Sigma's blatant disrespect. "I SAID, have you anything to say for yourself?" Sigma again remained perfectly silent. "Fine. As you wish. If you have nothing to say, then I hereby adjourn this-"

"Wait." The statement caught the Council head off-guard.

"Do you have something to say?" Sigma waited a second to answer.

"Yes." The Council head resumed his position at the podium. Once again, for a few seconds a silence and stillness filled the vast room.

"Well?" Again, Sigma waited to answer.

"Goodbye." As the words escaped Sigma's mouth, the dais where the Council members stood suddenly exploded in a flash of brilliant light and color, sending it plummeting to the floor below. When the dais finally contacted the ground, the light from the gigantic explosion lit every inch of the room, giving Sigma a god-like appearance, as he stood on the pillar raised high above the wreckage below. Even the explosion did not interrupt his almost meditative state.

"If it must end, it must end like this." Sigma tightened his fists and ripped his hands apart, breaking the restraints and shutting off his CPU. His lifeless body fell silently, and almost serenely, off the pillar, into the fiery, tangled mass of steel below. When all was done, a curious peace seemed to radiate throughout the room. Even Sigma seemed to be in a better state of being. However, when Sigma woke up, the state of being disappeared along with the peculiar peacefulness he had during the trial. When Sigma woke up, it was in a different place...

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The Madness Room. A white-walled prison of the mind that could turn the most levelheaded man insane, and, interestingly enough, could turn the most deranged of men into sensible and well-adjusted members of society. In theory. And only in theory. The Room was really a machine that was housed in a small, white room with no visible doors or windows. It was designed to utilize a subject's mind as a tool of rehabilitation. Each subject who endured the process soon realized what a dangerous weapon the mind can truly be...

The way the Room worked was actually quite simple.

Phase 1: Entrapment

The subject who was to be 'altered' was made unconscious by some means. (Usually it was via a toxin called Creazoin which, when injected into a subject, acted as a deep sedative. This was truly the first risk of the process, as the subject did not always wake up.) The subject was then strapped to a small chair in the center of the Room. When the subject was fully restrained, they were hooked up to a virtual reality system of sorts, which placed them in an artificially generated cybernetic world which stretched infinitely in every direction. This was really just an effective way of imprisoning a subject's mind.

The subject's first reaction upon waking was always to escape. This was the first step towards psychosis. This could last any amount of time, but inevitably, at some point, the subject would accept the reality of being trapped forever. It was only at this point the Conductors (the staff who originally created and currently operate the Room) could bring the subject to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Subconscious Replay

The Psyche Encapsulating Device, or PED for short, was built into the Room shortly after its creation. It was a simple device which was used to transfer the subconscious thoughts, images, and memories of the subject's subconscious into a sensory program which could be played back to the subject at regular intervals. It did this by sending a small wave of electricity through the subject's head which 'scanned' it onto a disk. The PED was said to reveal the innermost personal truths, and was supposedly able to alter the thoughts of criminals, by showing them repeatedly the guilt which was locked in their subconscious. This was relatively effective and mostly harmless, but only in small doses. However, it wasn't the successes that the Madness Room was named for...

The Forced Psyche Alteration process was saved for criminally insane death row inmates who were used as guinea pigs. The Conductors had an... amusingly macabre little poem that went with the horrifying process. It went, "If you're troubled or insane, we'll put a current through your brain. We use too much, and that is that; against the wall, your brain goes splat." It really wasn't an exaggeration, to be honest. For the most disturbed and dangerous subjects, the treatments were much worse that a replay of guilty memories. The subject was forced to experience the horror show which was the full contents of their mind. That is, of course, if the electricity from the PED didn't fry your brain like a chicken egg on a griddle. Such an event was reasonably commonplace. After all, the process was still in its testing phase.

If the subject survived the scanning process, their life became a living nightmare, which was repeated over and over again. Not even the Conductors were allowed to view the content that was extracted from the subject's mind, ironically enough, for health and safety reasons. It was during this horrendous process that line between healing and harming became hazardously thin. Not even the Conductors knew exactly where that line was. They could only wait for the process to end so they could move to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Shutdown and Release

The Conductors are never more nervous, anxious, or excited than when Phase 3 is in effect. In Phase 3 the replay program is shutdown. (Gradually, of course. Even the Conductors know that an abrupt replay stop leads to brain shock and a 99.78 percent possibility of death.) After the PED is shut down, the VR program is turned off, and, at long last, the subject is back in reality. Dazed, demented, damaged, or dead.

If the subject is alive and relatively sane, (which was easy to tell, considering that the sane subjects generally aren't screaming demonic incantations with wrists that are drenched in blood from trying to escape the restraints,) they are given a short reorientation in the form of a film which described who they were, where they were, and what just happened. Following that, the subject exited the white room and was escorted (still somewhat restrained) to the Testing Room. The Testing Room was nothing more sinister or complex that a small, silvery room where the subject was given a quick multiple choice psych test. Interestingly enough, one of the questions was "How would you describe your experience in the Room over the last year?" The choices were 'pleasant', 'unpleasant', and 'a living hell'. They have yet to receive a 'pleasant' or 'unpleasant' answer.

After the test results were calculated, the subject was either released back into the world, or committed back to a regular prison. Despite the sometimes appalling (yet unintentional) results the Conductors brought upon their subjects, the Conductors still had rules of safety. Rule number one: never put a person in the Room twice. Never.

This was Sigma's fate. And what a twisted fate it was. To date, only 3 other robots have been subjected to the Room. Everything in the Room was equally effective to any mechanical being with artificial intelligence, and equally deadly. If Sigma survived through this, he would be the first.

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The Conductor's Room was where Sigma, and all other subjects, were monitored both physically and mentally. It was also where the Conductors could control the PED and VR environment. One wall was composed of several TV screens. One set of screens was connected to a simple security camera located inside the Room. The second set was hooked up the both the VR system and the PED. It was this second set that sometimes had to be shut off during Phase 2. Usually, no civilians were ever allowed into this room. The Conductors did make one exception in this case. Zero was allowed to enter the Room on the condition that he would not repeat anything that he heard or saw. The whole process was meant to be kept top secret.

Zero walked through a thin, doorless hallway, with black walls and ceilings and a clear glass floor that was lit from below. He was alone, though he felt a strange, poltergeist-like presence surrounding him. When he reached the end of the hallway, he was almost convinced that someone else was there. The Conductors all felt this at one time or another. They called it the 'jibblies'. Zero looked up at the large door marked 'Conductor Entry Only', and pushed it open.

Stepping inside was like stepping into another world, or, more likely, like stepping into a hallucination. The Conductors all wore long, orange lab coats that went down beyond their feet so when the walked they looked like ghosts. Their hands were covered by thin black gloves. Each right-hand glove had a small hole cut in it, revealing a small, hieroglyphic-looking symbol tattooed on the back of each Conductor's hand. The Conductors' faces were mostly covered by large, round, black goggles and also by the unusually long collars of their lab coats. Most people who had seen the Conductors wondered how they could differentiate between each other, seeing as they almost never speak. Some people believed that the Conductors were able to communicate telepathically, with brains specially bred to be of a secund nature (no pun intended), completely logical. The Conductors have no comment on the issue.

The Conductor's Room, to Zero, anyway, was amazing in itself. It was the size of an airship hangar, having several floors of computer stations and holographic brainwave analyzers. The most impressive part was the far wall, which was several stories high and composed entirely of video monitors. Each monitor showed either a picture of the inside of the Madness Room or a computer generated image of the VR simulation, which was essentially what the subject would see. An image of the actual subject was also present in these images. The monitors basically relayed what the subjects witnessed and experienced as they endured their treatments. It was these monitors that were most often shut down, for one reason or another.

Zero stepped fully into the Conductor's Room, taking in everything he saw. He stood around for a few seconds until he realized that someone was tapping him on the shoulder. He turned around to see a Conductor staring down at him. The Conductor walked past Zero, then turned and signaled that he should follow. Zero walked behind the Conductor onto a small elevator which carried them down to the main floor. Zero didn't really notice, at leastuntil now, how many Conductors there actually were. The number of Conductors in the room had to be at least a hundred and fifty or so. Further looking upon them, Zero realized how eerie they seemed, as they all looked identical. Zero shook the feeling off and continued following the Conductor ahead of him. Soon they were at the wall of monitors. Finally, Zero saw what he'd come to see: Sigma.

The sight of Sigma strapped to the chair brought an almost sickening pleasure to Zero. Sigma seemed so helpless, so powerless, that it was almost funny. Several dozen wires were hooked up to Sigma, from the back of his head, down to his, back, and even up and down his arms. The wires traveled down to small, perfectly sized, perfectly symmetrical holes in the floor, which added to the flawless appearance. Once again, Sigma's peacefulness was an odd sight. Zero found solace in the sight of the tamed beast.

"He should be waking up soon." The Conductor's unexpected statement made Zero jump a little.

"What?"

"Sigma. His systems should be switching online soon. However, when he wakes up, he won't find himself in there." The Conductor pointed to the picture of Sigma in the Madness Room. "He'll find himself in there." The Conductor then pointed to the screen which showed the VR world.

"What then?"

"You'll see." Zero saw what he assumed to be a smile, hidden under the long orange collar.

"Right..." Zero looked deeply at the VR world. It was actually quite beautiful, to an extent. The floor, or surface, if you prefer, seemed like it was made of glass, floating infinitely over an abyss of nothingness. The sky, as you could call it, looked like a constant, rainless storm, looming eerily above the glassy land. Suddenly, a blurry image appeared in the center of the screen. The image slowly came into focus to reveal the shape of Sigma. The Conductor tapped Zero on the shoulder, causing him to quickly turn around. "What?"

"It starts now."

"What do you mean?" The Conductor turned towards the screen.

"He's awake."

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Not TOO bad, eh? It only gets better. I REALLY don't want to say too much more about upcoming chapters and plot twists, so I'll just say... Coming Soon - File 2: Malfunction 


	2. Malfunction

Lost In Reality - Glitch In The System

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File 2: Malfunction 

**File Date: May 26-28, 22xx**

_"If it must end, it must end like this."_

_"If it must end, it must end like this."_

_"If it must end, it must end like this."_

The words echoed through Sigma's mind with a painful resonance. Never had Sigma questioned whether or not he would have been left for dead on the cold, steel floor of the trial room. He only thought of the endless, mechanical sleep that lied ahead. In fact, when he first opened his eyes and witnessed the endlessly stormy skies of the cyber world, he questioned whether or not he was still in the dreamland of his own mind.

Sigma stood up slowly, taking in each detail of the vast landscape surrounding him. He stared down at the transparent floor, then back up at the rainless storm clouds that overtook each inch of the sky. His gaze returned straight forward after a few seconds, and a new half-confused half-angered look came upon his face. All of a sudden, Sigma began dashing across the glassy plane at full, unobstructed velocity. For the next 30 or so minutes, he ran.

"_What do you do, when you have both everywhere and nowhere to go?"_

The running did not leave Sigma winded or tired; only infuriated. Sigma did not give up, as was his nature. No matter the situation, Sigma would fight until he stood alone atop the bodies of his conquered enemies. However, this battle which he currently faced was not a battle against man or beast, but against himself. And what a painful battle it was.

Zero and the Conductor watched Sigma's actions intently via the monitors in the Conductor's Room. They followed Sigma's every move, watching closely as Sigma's bewilderment disappeared and turned into a predatory fury. With a final act of desperation, Sigma slammed his mighty fist into the glassy ground with every inch of vehemence within him. The floor did not break, but rather it cracked and disintegrated into small clusters of light blue pixels which floated up into the air, disappearing as they rose. When the final pixels ascended, the gap within the floor (which was hexagonal in shape) was at least twice Sigma's size.

Zero, upon seeing this, looked at the Conductor with mild alarm. The Conductor looked down at Zero (as he was about a foot taller than him) and Zero could see a mild smile poke through the long, orange collar. "Don't worry. It's nothing irreparable. And besides, it's not like he's going to escape." Zero's semi-alarmed look faded and was replaced by mild befuddlement. The Conductor's smile grew. "Infinity is not two-dimensional. He's not going anywhere."

"But, how could anyone create a program so big? A program that stretched on infinitely? Doesn't it end somewhere?"

"Does the edge of a circle ever end? Watch and see." Zero looked back at the monitor and watched as Sigma stood up from the tremendous punch. Sigma backed away from the gap and turned around. Again, he began moving. This time he only walked, but he constantly looked around, trying to spot, well, anything he could. A few hundred yards later he saw something that caught his eye in a very disturbing way.

In front of him, just a few feet away, was a hole in the ground. The hole was hexagonal in shape, and at least twice Sigma's size. Sigma stopped moving and gasped in shock. Sigma turned around quickly and stared back towards the spot where he'd started. He immediately ran as fast as he could towards the original opening he'd created. In a minute or so, he was there. What he saw was the same sight he'd been staring at just moments ago. Infuriated, he ran past the hole in the other direction, using each ounce of strength he had. Less than a minute later, he saw the exact sight he feared he'd see. A hexagonal hole, at least twice his size.

"Whoa..." Zero saw the hexagonal hole just as Sigma did, and felt a stroke of inspirational genius which he knew didn't belong to him. The Conductor actually chuckled a little.

"We found out that no matter how thick the walls of a prison would be, the prisoner would never lose hope. He would never stop believing that at some point he would be able to break through those walls. So, we solved the problem. It's the same prison, but you can never see what's holding you back. Ingenious, no?" Zero nodded in agreement. "Now watch. Please." Zero again glued his face to the screen.

Sigma began running yet again, passing hole after hole after miserable hole, each identical in shape and size. His head was thoughtless, his face stuck in a fierce grimace. His movements were robotic, each limb moving in perfectly timed succession, in the exact same way hundreds of times over. The movements were so identical in nature that it almost startled Zero when Sigma made a sudden leap into the air.

"What's he..." But as soon as the words escaped Zero's mouth, Zero saw Sigma's intentions. His body was aimed directly at the hexagonal opening several yards ahead of him. Zero watched as Sigma's body passed through the gap (impeccably, with room to spare), traveling downward only by the force of the faux gravity built within the program. Like a comet Sigma's body fell through the blue nothingness that surrounded him. Within seconds, the blue void became a sea of clouds, all a violently shifting grey. As the clouds rushed past Sigma, fading into the emptiness above, Sigma could make out something below him: a floor that looked like it was made of glass, and the exact same rage-inducing vision of a hexagon-shaped hole in the ground, at least twice his size.

Sigma landed harshly on the hard surface, and began cursing under his breath. The Conductor looked upon him with a mild amusement and astonishment. "Hm. I guess it was a good thing to add Infinite Depth to the program. I honestly never thought we would actually use it." Sigma stood fully upright, and stared up at the storm above him. "I will give him one thing. He does not give up easily."

"I could've told you that." Zero returned to his regular nonchalant self. "What now?"

"Well, in order to start the next process, the subject has to give up the will to escape. Generally this takes a few hours, days, weeks at most. But, in this case, we may have to speed up the process." A minor frustration crossed Zero's face.

"SO, what now?" For a second, the Conductor seemed annoyed by Zero's impatience. However, he shook it off and smiled instead.

"We play God."

---

----------

---

The pain was excruciating. X couldn't focus his mind on anything except the unbearable agony coursing through his body. The pain was caused by the sensory fibers, the "nerves", which Douglas had to expose in order to attach X's new left arm. They had to be exposed for several days as Douglas added on X's arm piece by piece. The arm could not be built separately then attached to X at once, for some reason Douglas didn't explain. X wasn't angry... well, at least, he couldn't keep his mind off the pain long enough to even focus on anger. The only other thought that crossed his mind was the hope that Sigma was being dealt the same writhing agony.

A human would probably describe the pain as salt and lemon juice being poured onto a fresh wound (an agonizing prospect, no doubt), just to give you some idea. An animal, if it could talk, would describe it as the feeling of death, replayed over and over again. For X, the pain was merely a test of his own psyche, not his physical endurance. All X could do was tell himself that he could not stop the pain by his own means, but could only wait until the pain ended itself. His body would hold out. He had to convince himself of that. He had to make sure that his mind didn't snap like a twig.

"Through pain we grow stronger. Through pain we grow stronger." X chanted the words to himself as he stared at the holes in the wall, which were left from his previous temporary losses of self-control. It was shocking but not really unexpected for Douglas (who occupied the room adjacent to X's) to see X's powerful fist piercing the wall with enough intensity to cause chunks of metal to fly across the room and embed themselves in everything on the far side of Douglas' quarters. Douglas was only thankful that it was only the wall that was damaged, not X or anyone else.

Though the agony was intense and almost mind-shattering, to some extent, it did not last long. 2 days after the pain started the sensory fibers were reconnected to a section of X's new arm, and the pain ended. X held no grudge towards Douglas but was only thankful that it was over. A day later X had what could be considered a working limb, although it was really just a titanium endoskeleton attached to some wires and pneumatics. It was functional, if not a little crude. The rest of the arm would be basically outer armor and external systems. It was no problem for Douglas.

"All right. Let's see what you can do." X and Douglas were at a small training area within the base. "Hit it!" Douglas pressed a switch behind X and several targets popped up. Without missing a beat X began blasting away at the targets (each of which had a picture of Sigma lovingly stuck to the face) one after one with perfect aim, almost making it look like the shots were homing in on the target. A minute and a half later, each of the 30 targets were peppered with countless bullet holes, and X was pleased.

"You do good work Douglas. This one feels even more responsive than my last arm."

"I try my best. I even threw in an upgrade or two, if ya don't mind." X, who was staring at his new arm, turned back to Douglas with an emotionlessstare. "Now don't get all excited there."

"I'm sorry I was just... thinking. So..." X held up his arm. "What do I need to know?" Douglas grabbed X's arm lightly and turned it over so the palm was facing down. "Do you feel this slight bump in your wrist?" X put his right hand over it.

"Yes. What is it?"

"Bend your left hand slightly backward and put pressure on that point." X bent his hand and watched as it became separated from his wrist, sliding backwards and revealing a hole where his wrist ended. Out of that hole popped a small, cylindrical object which X caught with his left hand as it slid back into place. X and Douglas smiled simultaneously.

"Again you receive my approval." X seemed quite content. Douglas grabbed the object from X's hand.

"Flash and incendiary grenades right at your fingertips." Douglas threw the grenade behind him and it exploded with a burst of fire, sending Sigma targets flying through the air. "And, I have one more thing to show you."

"There's more?"

"Yeah. Clap your hands."

"You can't be serious."

"I'm as serious as death itself. Now clap." X clapped his hands twice, and the lights in the room instantly turned off. X sneered at Douglas, who was now smiling even wider.

"Very funny."

"I'm sorry. I just had to do that."

"Right." X tilted his hand back and popped out a flash grenade. "Nice job on the grenade upgrade, though. I commend you." X tossed the grenade back towards the targets where it exploded, lighting up the room for a split-second with a great white illumination. As the room lit up, X and Douglas both noticed that the other had a smile on his face. X turned around and casually exited the room, obviously satisfied. Douglas exited via the opposite side of the room, which sent him walking through the target range. As he moved, he noticed a Sigma-faced target that was untouched by X's shots. He stared at it for a second, and then punched it with all his might.

"If it's not death, it's too good for you." He shook off his hand and walked through the small, silver door at the back of the range. As the dust finally settled, the furious passion of resentment could be seen in each smoking aperture left from X's barrage. The area was a war zone, calmed only after the storm had passed through.

"_Rage is the purest of power. The strongest walls of the strongest empires could not hold back the power of fury that lies within us all."_

_---_

_----------_

---

"CURSE THIS DAMNABLE PLACE!" Sigma roared as he clenched his fists together and released an orb of scarlet energy that was powerful enough to send a sea of red light shooting through every visible iota of space. The blast disintegrated every visible inch of walking surface Sigma could see. When it ended, he was left with a purely empty space, devoid of anything except the pixels that formed his own manifestation. He floated silently in air, fully grasping that what he was looking at was pure infinity. The clouds were gone, so nothing obstructed his view of... nothing.

Sigma could not tell if he was falling. There were no external clues; no wind, no background; to gauge the movement of his body. The sensations he felt were nothing, if not he felt what could be considered lightheadedness. The 'lightheadedness', as is were, seemed to calm him down to where he was almost in a semi-meditational state, his anger replaced by an empty mind, free of the bombardment of sights, sounds, and thoughts that constantly punctured his psyche.

Serenity, though, is almost always short-lived.

With a flash, Sigma snapped back from the fantasy of the subconscious to the reality of the conscious. The sickening thud of Sigma's body against the hexagonal ground of his borderless fortress was like water being poured on his sleeping mind. His eyes suddenly opened wider than ever before, taking in the flux of time and space around him. He realized that his prison was rebuilding. He saw as eachsegment of the transparent floorwas restored, pixel by pixel, forming the agonizing walkway that only proved how Sigma had made no gains on his 'escape'. Even the clouds had returned. The same dark, foreboding, 'no chance in hell' storm clouds. Everything around Sigma was screaming at him...

"_You cannot escape."_

Sigma punched his fist into the ground. Futility surrounded him like an ocean of fire. However, just as Sigma had fallen to the lowest depressions of his mind, like an angel from a forsaken land, the voice came. "Sigma." The voice seemed to come from everywhere around him. Sigma didn't recognize the voice, but realized that it was the closest thing to a god that he could expect to find in this world.

For a split-second, a thought entered his mind; a thought that wouldn't have even brushed his psyche when he first entered the program. Sigma knew that the body he was in was not his actual self, simply a carbon copy brought to life in some other form of a world. That meant that, while his actions were controlled by his own mind, the actions of the world around him were controlled by another force; a force obviously more powerful than him at this point in time.

Sigma continued to think about his senses, about his self-being. Couldn't this force (if there was one of such magnitude) control his actions, thoughts, or perspectives of time and space? Sigma realized then that he had no idea how long he had been in the program (although he referred to it in his mind as a prison) since he had woken up. Even if the Force (as he whimsically called it) had not altered his sense of real time, he could not gauge the length of his stay in the barrier-devoid prison. He just hadn't paid that much attention to it. Sigma was actually amazed at how nothing (quite literally) could distract him so much.

The more Sigma thought of the Force, the more it disturbed him. _"If this thing has so much control over me, why doesn't it take control of me? It obviously wants me to do something, but it doesn't want to use its own power. But what-" _Sigma's thoughts were cut off by the voice, which spoke again but with a louder and more authoritative tone.

"SIGMA!" This outburst caught Sigma's attention, causing him to look up towards the looming clouds. He knew the source of the voice was not directly up, but it is a normal reaction to focus upwards when seeking any source of greater power.

"Who is it? Who are you?" Sigma's voice did not raise much; he figured that whoever was trying to communicate with him had at least the amount of omnipotence needed to hear him at any level.

"My identity is of no significance to you."

"YOU... YOU ARE THE ONE WHO PUT ME HERE, DAMN IT! I HAVE NO REASON TO LISTEN TO YOU!" Sigma was now fully standing and pulsing with furious energy.

"SIGMA! Unless you wish to stay here until tempus terminus you have no choice in this matter!" Sigma was silent, but still in a state of rage. "Look around you Sigma! You know just as well as I that you are trapped! If you still do not seek help I will oblige but know that freedom will be forever beyond your grasp!" The energy flowing through Sigma was now causing red, static-like charges to shoot out of his body.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

"I want to change you. Alter you. Bend you. Break you. I want to push your psyche to the limit of destruction the pull you back and do it over again. But most importantly, I want to make you succumb to the fact that if you want to get out of here you must give up this pointless attempt to escape! Only if you give up will you have a chance to make it out of here with an inch of your sanity left!" The voice silenced and waited. Sigma responded by firing wild shots of red energy into the air above him.

"_Everybody cracks. The only variable is time."_

_---_

----------

_---_

"X! X! Message! Message!" Alia ran down the narrow, steel hallways of the Central Tower, finally catching up to X, who was staring at the blue vista leading to Giga City from one of the tower's many circular outlooks. "X! A message just ca-AAH!" Alia fell rather ungracefully to the floor, and was lifted by a now-startled X.

"Jeez... are you okay?" Alia looked up, slightly dumbfounded, but shook it off and handed X a small disk.

"I'm fine. Uh... here's a message that just arrived for you." X took the disk and inserted it into a small terminal on the wall of the hallway. "Um... that's all! See ya around!" Alia turned around and walked off, tripping again but not falling. X shook his head and turned to the terminal which now displayed a holographic screen. X ticked a few keys until an 'Open file?' message showed. With another keystroke the screen doubled in size and now showed an interesting sight.

The screen now showed a laughing, 2-dimensional yellow happy face with crosses for eyes, which turned around to show an anonymous message, written in inconsistent typefaces, like a ransom note. It read '3 weeks: Infection or reaction.' As X read it, his face turned strangely somber. The yellow face turned around again, and this time the face showed a tilted frown, topped by the same crossed eyes. The sight had such a grisly overtone to it; it was like watching a prelude to devastation. _"But, Sigma's trapped. He can't harm anyone from where he is. The Mavericks are virtually destroyed. There can't be any threat..."_ As his thought ended the face turned yet again, this time revealing the message 'Laugh while you can.' The face continued to turn, cycling between the two faces and two messages. X was visibly disturbed, and he continued to stare at the spinning face, until...

"Hey, X!" The statement was particularly bad-timed, and it startled X quite a bit, but X tried his hardest not to show it. He turned around slowly, putting on his best 'faux-calm' appearance, to greet the eagerly-smiling face of Axl. "What's that?" X quickly turned half-around and hit a few keys, causing the smiley face to disappear and the disk to eject into X's open palm.

"Just a message sent by some joker." Axl looked like he was expecting to hear more. "It's nothing important." Axl just stared silently and smiled again. He then pointed to X's arm.

"How's the new arm working out? It seemed like you had a bit of an accident there." X extended his previously damaged arm and moved it around, extending his fingers and balling them up again.

"It seems to work out."

"Excellent." Axl whipped out his right-sided gun and twirled it around his finger. "Can't imagine battling without someone like you to save me, you know?" X tossed the message disk up and down in his hand and walked to the outlook. When he was fully outside he tossed the disk into the air and fired off a single shot, hitting the disk perfectly and shattering it into infinitesimal slivers that shimmered as they slowly drifted to the ground. X turned around and faced Axl again.

"You know, one day you are actually going to encounter a battle that will seem insurmountable and I won't be anywhere near it." Axl put his gun away and faced X again.

"I know. But two shots are still better than one, right? While it lasts, I mean."

"Right." X and Axl both smiled and walked off in opposite directions.

---

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---

Zero stared at the monitor with an unshattering focus. The Conductor standing beside him talked into a small headset attached to his large goggles. Zero watched as every word the Conductor said was transformed into a deep, powerful command within the program. The Conductor's voice was not changed radically, but changed just enough so a person hearing both voices at different times would only feel a slight sensation of déjà vu.

Sigma's vociferousness did not diminish as the Conductor spoke. In fact, with each word the Conductor spoke, Sigma's anger only heightened and intensified. At one point, for unknown causes and to the surprise of Zero, the red aura of pulsating energy surrounding Sigma turned a brilliant topaz color, tinged with specks of pure white. Zero wondered if this actually was the manifestation of Sigma's purest, most deep-seated anger. Zero realized how lucky he was that he was only seeing this materialization from within a program.

The topaz pulses of energy were constantly expanding as the two 'spoke'. The exchanges between Sigma and the Conductor were sharp and emotionally perfunctory. No side seemed to fully grasp the other, and no side backed down. It was a tennis match without a score, and in seemed to go on endlessly. Sigma would never give in to the likes of his captor, (anyone unlucky enough to fight him knew this,) even if his captor held the key to his freedom and was willing to give it up. As far as Sigma was concerned, any keyholder was either a target for life or an ally 'til death, and to switch roles was a feat punishable only by destruction.

"YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL! DO YOU EXPECT ME TO CONCEDE SO SIMPLY? TO STEP INTO THE MOUSETRAP WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT? I HAVE THE POWER TO DESTROY THIS FORSAKEN PLACE AND I WILL NOT GIVE UP UNTIL I DO SO!" The pulses of energy were expanding out and dissipating, like 3-dimesional ripples of air. Each pulse carried a greater radius than the previous one, and it wasn't long before the sphere of rhythmically beating energy surrounding Sigma reached the clouds overhead.

"Then do it! Escape! Destroy the prison that surrounds you! If you can tear down these barricades then do so! I will not stand in your way! Just know that when you DO give up, I will not be here to respond to your pleas!" It was at this time that the Conductor silenced himself and watched to see Sigma's reaction. Zero was very intrigued by the whole series of events up until now, and wondered if Sigma's rage would ever cease. It seemed like a lost cause to Zero.

The event which occurred next was quite spectacular. Like before, Sigma released a surge of energy throughout the whole of the program. Also, like before, the energy destroyed everything (Sigma excluded) which could be considered physical matter. However, the difference between the two blasts came in the form of the result. When Sigma first opened his eyes after the flash of energy, instead of seeing a blank sea of nonexistence, he saw something else. Something... different.

What Sigma saw was unrecognizable and, at first, indescribable. It seemed, upon first glance, to be a sinew of dark energy or electricity, standing vertically and rotating around Sigma like a satellite. Again, Sigma was unable to gauge his own movements, and so was unable to tell whether it was him or the energy strand that was revolving. Each time it passed by him Sigma got a better glance of what it actually was, but he was still unable to determine what "it" actually was. Whatever it was, Sigma soon realized that he wasn't supposed to see it.

The Conductor tapped away at a set of keys in front of him. He seemed in a frantic rush, like he was late for something. Zero waited until his keystrokes decelerated before speaking. "What was that black, sinewy thing?" The conductor tapped a final, few keys and Sigma fell back down to solid ground, the strand of energy gone and the clouds again abundant.

"It..." The delay said it all to Zero. "It... was nothing. Just a glitch. A quick fix." The Conductor ticked a key or two before noticing that Zero was still looking at him. "The program is not perfect; I make no claims of that. However, it is getting better every second. Besides, as long as the hole is too small to crawl through, the wall doesn't need to be rebuilt, right? Knotholes and potholes, nothing more."

"Right." Zero stared at the ground, and then returned his gaze to the screen. For whatever reason, him, the Conductor, and Sigma were all absolutely silent for the next twenty minutes.

* * *

Getting good, huh? Again, I do not want to spoil any twists, surprises, or gasp-inducing incidents. However, be assured that something interesting WILL PROBABLY happen in the next chapter. Coming Soon - File 3: Lost And Found 


End file.
